Category: Fiestas

Forget Christmas Day, Christmas Eve is where the party is at for most Spanish families. We don’t even open our presents on Christmas Day…we like to wait for the Epiphany when the Three Wise Men mounted on their camels come by. You gotta admit that the Three Wise Men are more “believable”; at least the…

Samhain is the original Halloween. It was hijacked by the Americans via Irish immigrants, commercialised and unleashed unto the world. In essence it’s the same but I prefer to celebrate the original rather than the pretender. But what is Samhain? It is an ancient Celtic celebration that marks the end of the harvest period and…

The Day of the Valencian Community (Valencia, Alicante & Castellón), also known as Nou d’Octubre (9th October), commemorates when James I of Aragon took possession of Valencia from the hands of its Moorish rulers in 1238 and established the new Christian Kingdom of Valencia. In 1338, 100 years after the conquest, the new inhabitants of…

Corpus Christi is a Catholic feast commemorating the body of Christ in the Eucharist. In Valencia, we celebrate it in a unique way. Find out more about all the different traditions and events that take place during this time on my previous blog post otherwise you’ll be wondering what the devil is going on. 2017 PROGRAMME …

Corpus Christi is a Catholic feast commemorating the body of Christ in the Eucharist and has been celebrated in Valencia since 1236, although it wasn’t until 1355 when the procession element came about. It was once considered the Great Feast of Valencia but in recent times it has been eclipsed by the popularity of Fallas…

All Hail the Hunchback! No, not the Hunchback of Notre Dame! The Hunchback (La Geperudeta) is what the Valencians have affectionately nicknamed the leaning statue of the Patroness of Valencia, the Mare de Déu dels Desamparats (Our Lady of the Forsaken). The story behind the title of this virgin all starts in 1407 when Father…

If you are in Valencia during Holy Week and Easter do not expect highly decorated statues of biblical characters and scenes parading through the streets bringing the city to a halt, thick clouds of incense enough to resurrect Jesus once again, deafening sounds of marching bands or emotionally charged wailings of Saetas. All this…

Gunpowder runs through the veins of Valencians and it doesn’t take them long to find an excuse to set off an array of different pyrotechnics to celebrate religious festivals, weddings, baptisms, communions, heck, they even set them off if they win the football. It is during Fallas, however, when this obsession culminates and all hell…